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EACA Meeting – February 2022

February 8, 2022

Call to Order 7:00pm

Meeting Agenda:

January 11, 2022, Meeting Notes approved

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Recap – Vic Thomas, EACA president. Thanks to the 40 folks who participated. We picked up more than 20 contractor bags of trash and painted over graffiti on the wall across from Burgess-Peterson. If you weren’t able to come out, please come to the next event. Let us know if you have ideas for what that should be.

NPU-W grant: Community association leaders met and decided to use a city grant for street-sign toppers to identify the neighborhoods. Contact fundraising@eaca.net with your thoughts.

Neighborhood Safety: Zone 6 Update Sgt. Bernieri, see chat for email address. Advice on “clean car” program. Don’t put stickers on your car that indicate there might be a gun inside. Don’t leave anything of value in your car, especially a gun. There is a program now – Connect Atlanta — that allows home and business to register their security cameras to allow law enforcement to contact you to request footage in case there is a crime nearby that the camera might have caught. Q: Member has signed up for the program and noted he has three cameras at his business. What’s the next step? Will he be contacted? A: He should call the number on the website and ask for a modem that will attach to the business’ system and then the police can look through those cameras. There is a cost involved with the program. Q: Why are we one of the only cities in Georgia using a third-party to drive this system rather than going directly to the technology company? Atlanta’s way appears to increase the cost to the camera owners. A: Myron Polster will look into this. He noted the communication about the program was unclear about the differences between businesses and homeowners using the program. Q: Saturday evening on Newton there was a man creating a disturbance, and he destroyed a woman’s mailbox. When the police came, they said the man had been apprehended and she asked if she should press charges. The officer said no. A: Sgt. B says that would not have been his recommendation and asked for more details on the incident. He will check in and let the major know to report back. He says we can ask for a supervisor if we don’t feel we’re getting good service from the officer on the scene.

Public Safety: publicsafety@eaca.net – Myron Polster. City of Atlanta Alcohol License Application (Change of Agent) The Elder Tree Pub. Committee recommends approving. EACA body approves unanimously. Myron did a January comparison of our crime with nearby neighbors, and we were at the top of the list for the month. Please call the East Atlanta Security Patrol in addition to 911. EASP officers, if on duty, often will arrive first. You don’t need to be a member to call, but Myron recommends that you join. The security patrol uses off-duty officers who also patrol our neighborhood when they are on duty, so they are familiar with our community. See https://www.easecuritypatrol.com/ for more info. Person driving a red four-door SUV fired a seemingly random gunshot at a house on Van Epps on Friday afternoon. If you have info, please report it to police or EASP. 455 East Side also has been a site of a number of recent problems. Police are aware.

Committee Announcements

Finance Committee: treasurer@eaca.net. We now have an actual committee and not just Treasurer Ralph Green. Treasurer’s Report (January 2022) was approved. Note: The link to the monthly report is in the pre-meeting newsletter, so members can review before approving. Presentation of 2022/23 Budget: The budget also was linked to in the pre-meeting newsletter. Please look it over, ask questions via treasurer email if you like, and we will vote on the budget at the March meeting.

Transportation: transportation@eaca.net. Update on East Atlanta Transportation from Karlyn Beer, co-chair, Southern Moreland Ave Working Group – Resurfacing will happen on Moreland starting in April from Starlight drive-in to near Edgewood Retail. Set to be completed at the end of August. After that, there will be a “quick response project” to respond to safety issues uncovered last summer. High speeds are expected after the resurfacing, so this is important. SMAWG has asked for crosswalks with lights, planted medians and speed-reduction aids. If you want to help, please let Council Member Liliana B. know you appreciate all her work on this.

Nate Minor notes marking of the Village rideshare locations is still in progress. Q: Is there an update on Glenwood and Moreland realignment. A: It looks like the project is waiting on Georgia Power to move a pole.

Membership: membership@eaca.net – Chase Miller. Thanks to all the new members. If you’d like to play a larger role in EACA, just ask.

Neighbor In Need: neighborinneed@eaca.net: Fundraising is ongoing for NIN, so if you have any good ideas, let them and/or Vic know.

Education: education@eaca.net Jeanne Fore. Time is up for DeKalb County school choice program on Friday. MJHS was on a soft lockdown recently after a bomb threat. The school is taking it very seriously and law enforcement has had a larger presence there this week. “Hairspray” the musical will be presented on March 3-5.

East Atlanta Parent Network: eapn@eaca.net – Emily Ragsdale. EAPN is being resurrected. EACA is seeking info on parents needs to decide what issues and ages EAPN will address.

Parks and Greenspace: parks@eaca.net – Alex Levy. Park volunteers and Trees Atlanta continue to work monthly on the first Saturday morning of each month to remove invasives in the park.

Parks Department denied a request to plant more trees on the north end of the park. Ormewood Forest work hopefully will begin soon.

Fundraising and Grants: fundraising@eaca.net. Dawn RiveraPortrait and oral history project are in the works, funded by a city grant. Students will be photographing participants. If you know of some folks who might be interested in participating in this program, please contact Dawn at the email above.

NPU-W: NPW-W@eaca.net – Ed Gilgor. Brief explanation of what neighborhoods are in the NPU and what NPU-W does. NPU looks to the community associations to help shape policy. New officers this year. Please reach out to Ed at edward.gilgor@gmail.com if you’d like to know more or get involved.

LUZ: landuse@eaca.net – Karla Causey. Special Use Permit for 122 McPherson Avenue requesting to use a residential home as a preschool facility. Committee recommended a defer/deny because the site plan was incomplete. Applicant is already working on completing the plan. This is the Highlander School. EACA votes 24 in favor, 3 opposed to defer/deny. Variance for 349 Patterson Avenue to increase the amount of lot coverage. Committee voted to recommend deny. EACA body votes against the committee’s recommendation, 22 to 7. There was another issue brought up after the NPU meeting and NPU committee voted to defer that request. EACA body votes to go along with the defer, 26 to 2. Two new developments, one at Moreland and Custer at the former site of Value Village, and one on Metropolitan. That latter is for an art gallery near the northwest corner of Flat Shoals and Metropolitan, in a former church.

Community Announcements: EABA – Nate Minor. Business association is hiring a coordinator. See chat for more info.

Council Member Liliana Bakhtiari. She has been working to identify and clean up properties that are illegal dumping sites, and will also be working on potholes, Brownwood Park, and its rec center. Trash and recycling should be back to normal. Please let her know if there are problems. She’s also working to create a system to help senior residents to arm them against predatory lending and assist in making wills, etc. Working to make sure everyone knows about 311 to get resources to the unsheltered population.

Margaret Spalding – Value Village development. There is no stormwater management plan as it relates to the site plan, which is a problem.

Bentley Hudgins – Announcing they are a candidate for State House District 90, formerly district 89, the seat Bee Nguyen is leaving to run for secretary of state. They also are doing a brunch with Q.

Adjourn 8:53pm.

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